Stephen Shore: Happy 235th, America

The American photographer Stephen Shore has been documenting this country since 1972, when he set off on his first cross-country trip with a 35-mm. Rollei in hand. In the four decades since, Shore has shed new light on the seemingly ordinary, recasting it in his distinctive deadpan style while celebrating the country’s character and its idiosyncrasies.

In 2004, Shore photographed a slice of this America at Peter Schjeldahl and Brooke Alderson’s annual Fourth of July celebrations in the Catskills. “They put on the best fireworks display I’ve ever seen,” Shore told me. “What makes the fireworks so special is that they are structured, like a piece of music. There are passages, movements, and repeated themes. It’s wonderful. What is also wonderful is the timeless, evocative quality of the gathering leading up to the fireworks. I regret I’m going to miss it this year.”